Going the Distance...

After qualifying on Friday, I started having thoughts about if I should go through with this again on Saturday. I was having a lot of fun and it was everything I expected, but it took from 8am to 10pm to get about an hour of seat time, if that. But after I started to find my rhythm in the last chance race, I was encouraged to build on that.

Since I didn't know what to expect on Friday, I didn't really set any goals. Saturday I had some goals. Maybe they weren't goals, but they were a couple of easy things to do to improve my performance. First, get in the right gear for qualifying. Second, I wanted to be right up on the car in front of me on starts and re-starts. Third, get on the gas earlier and harder coming out of the turns and go in harder and brake harder going into the turns. If I could do this, it would improve my chances of reaching my actual goal of not getting lapped in my heat or last chance race (also known as a "consie") and possibly luck into the feature.

Dad and I were in a lighter mood on our way to the Coliseum on Saturday. We stopped by Dunkin Donuts on the way there to get my favorite coffee and some donuts for the crew, so Saturday was already starting off good.

There is not much to say about the first and second practice for Saturday. I was "smoked" again in the first one, but each time in the car was a little more comfortable and a little bit faster. The track had more grip in it since there was more rubber put down from the day before. The thing I did notice was that I was starting to hang with whoever started in front of me, so that was encouraging.

Qualifying rolled around again and Dad had an interesting story from the stands. Since one of my goals was to get into fourth gear for qualifying, I took my time making sure I went through every gear on my warm up lap. Most guys blast out of the pits, zip through there warm up lap, zip through the timed laps and get it over with. So when the crowd saw me putting through the gears, Dad said a murmur started to build....that is until I came on to the backstretch prior to starting my timed laps. I went from put-put-put-put to a full blast charge into turn three and through four to start my timed laps.

My fastest lap on Saturday was 9.1s. Compared to my 10.3s from Friday I was happy, but I really thought I could break into the 8s range. Most cars qualified Saturday in the 8.3-8.5s range and the fast time was 7.8s. Even though I was over a second faster, it was still only good for 31 out of 35 cars that took times.

So after qaulifying, I called Lisa to see if she was going to make it out to see the races. She arrived in time to see me strapped in and waiting for my heat race. She turned out to be a good luck charm because I really started doing better with her in the stands. She also captured my first on track pass which you can see below. I am in the green #32. Watch the left front come off the ground coming out of the turns. It is might not be the ideal set-up, but it sure looks cool!





With Lisa in the stands I pull off my first pass and I didn't get lapped in my heat...coincidence?

So she catches up with me after the first race where I am starting to show flashes of competitiveness and what does she want? "I want to see Tony Stewart!"

We go over to his pit area and he is just hanging out with his crew and I am charged up so I am ready to go talk to him, but Lisa has celebrity-phobia, so she wouldn't let me. We saw him later waiting beside his car before one of the races and I went up to him with Lisa and her camera ready.


We had a quick conversation and Lisa snapped a picture, so I could have gone home happy at that point, but I had a last chance race to run.

I lined up 8th out of 9 in my last chance race. I was psyched for this one and I even bumped the car ahead of me on the pace laps to let him know I was coming. I came through the second turn of the first lap in 3rd place after a big wreck took out a bunch of cars in front of me. That is one thing you can't understand what it will be like until it happens and this time it wasn't that bad. My car owner kept telling me all weekend that strange things happen in indoor racing and one of the keys is to just keep moving. Everything happened so fast I don't even know what started it, but it felt like I broke through a wall when I came out the other side.

The race was stopped while they cleared the wreckage and I restarted 5th out of 6 remaining. I made a nice pass on a guy in front of me on one of the restarts, but I was stuck behind the same guy for the rest of the race when I was coming around to lap him. The results show me in fifth, but I consider it a fourth place finish since they counted the car I had already passed and was going to lap. Fourth place was two spots away from transferring from the feature. I managed not to get lapped in my final race, so I was able to meet all of my goals for the day.

Overall it was a great experience and I hope to build on this in the future. I have to thank the car owner Dave Fuhrman and his crew for providing me with a solid car. Originally he was going to bring a car for me and a car for himself but one of his cars had problems the week before in Toledo so he only brought one. He was good on his word that I would have a car to race in the Coliseum even if it meant that he would be watching. (I also learned how hard it is to watch someone else drive your car, but that might be for another post!)

And what kind of aspiring racecar driver would I be if I didn't thank my sponsor. Hometown Television (Channel 19 in Hamilton county) chipped in to make this thing happen and I think we represented them well. A couple people even came up to me who were familiar with the channel.

I also have to thank my whole family, especially my wife, for putting up with me being away for two whole days. Two days doesn't sound like much to most people, but most people haven't had to babysit my 1 year old and 4 year old while being crammed in an unfamiliar house.

I also have to thank my Dad for providing me with advice and keeping me entertained throughout the over 24hours of downtime we had over the two days. From the "Bizzaro Carper and Ringer" to my non-stop attempts to mingle with the "my fans", we had a lot of fun. I was glad to give him something new to brag to his friends about because you can only hear so much about jezza-buell! (Just kidding!!)


Keep an eye on this space! This isn't over yet...